“When I decided to go to Mercedes [last year], I had much greater reasons than just [Brawn],” Hamilton recently explained to Brazil’s Totalrace. “To me, that he was there was a bonus, but after I arrived, I saw that the team had a lot of talented people.

“[Brawn] was a good boss, with a very good approach, which creates a great atmosphere in the team – but this is something that is expected of a leader.”

The comments appear to go along with Hamilton’s insistence that Mercedes is primed for a title run this year, as he recently told Britain’s Sky Sports that the Brackley squad is “the best group of people” to have dealing with the raft of new technical regulations that will be in play.

Going back to Brawn in particular, it’s unknown if he will decide to continue on in F1 after his self-imposed breather. The 58-year-old already has a career he can be proud of, as he not only helped guide Ferrari and Michael Schumacher through their glory days in the early 2000s but also oversaw drivers’ and constructors’ championships for his own Brawn GP squad in 2009.

But if Brawn does decide to call time, Hamilton says F1 will keep on keepin’ on.

“The sport will continue when any of us go,” he said to Totalrace. “So no, I don’t see it as a loss for the sport.”